A koeksister (; ) is a traditional
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
confectionery made of fried dough infused in syrup or honey. There is also a
Cape Malay version of the dish, which is a fried ball of dough that is rolled in desiccated coconut called a koesister.
The name derives from the Dutch word "koek", which generally means a wheat flour confectionery.
Koeksisters are prepared by frying plaited
dough
Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes ...
strips in oil, then submersing the hot fried dough into ice cold sugar syrup. Koeksisters have a golden crunchy crust and liquid syrup centre, are very sticky and sweet, and taste like honey.
[ Laurens van der Post (1970) ''African Cooking'', Time-Life Books, New York]
A monument of a koeksister in the Afrikaner community of
Orania
Orania () is a Volkstaat, white separatistSources for "white separatist":
*
*
* Additional sources for "whites-only":
*
*
* South Africa, South African town founded by Afrikaners. It is located along the Orange River in the Karoo region o ...
alludes to the Afrikaner tradition of baking them to raise funds for the building of churches and schools.
See also
*
List of African dishes
Africa is the second-largest continent on Earth, and is home to hundreds of different cultural and ethnic groups. This diversity is reflected in the many local culinary traditions in choice of ingredients, style of preparation, and cooking techn ...
*
List of doughnut varieties
Doughnuts are a type of List of fried dough foods, fried dough food. The following is a list of doughnut and fried dough pastry varieties.
Variations and specialties by region
The terms below constitute either names for different doughnut type ...
*
Youtiao
''Youtiao'' (), known in Southern China as yu char kway, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of wheat flour dough of Chinese cuisine, Chinese origin and (by a variety of other names) also popular in other East Asia, East and Southeast Asia ...
References
Doughnuts
South African snack foods
{{SouthAfrica-cuisine-stub